


Rebuild, Renew, Restore

by tielan



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Movie: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22448086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Relationships: Mako Mori & Jake Pentecost, Raleigh Becket & Jake Pentecost, Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Rebuild, Renew, Restore

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jedibuttercup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedibuttercup/gifts).



"Thank God that's done," Jake drops into the rec room sofa opposite Nate with a long exhalation. "I tell you, man, it's nothing so terrifying as having to look into the eyes of a bloody hero of the last war and know that he's gone to the enemy."

"Uh," is what Nate says, his eyes widening as the entrance behind Jake hisses open.

Jake is on his feet in a moment - for all the good that does him.

Jake has always been on the short side of things. Over the years he's made sure that he had decent bulk to counteract that, because guys were dicks about size, as Mako once observed, as well as obsessed with the size of their dicks. Jake had nearly choked to death right then and there, never mind that his dad wasn't anywhere around to hear Mako's blunt and canny observation.

But bulk isn't going to help him face down six foot of hero-of-the-last-war.

Six foot of furious, presumed-dead hero-of-the-last-war.

Raleigh Becket looks older and wearier than the last time Jake saw him. There's an element of Jake's dad there - the authority that expected respect, demanded obedience, commanded loyalty. But he also looks like a man who'll skin Jake alive if he doesn't get a satisfactory answer.

"Hello, Jake," says Jake's brother-in-law, clipped and coldly furious in a way that anyone who's ever seen Mako in a rage would recognise. "Where's Mako?"

\--

The crash foam did its job, mostly.

Not enough to save the pilot who was cushioned but still bled out, but enough to insulate Mako from both the impact and the fire.

Cracked collarbone and fractured upper arm, cracked ribs, compressed spine, and horrendous bruising all over her side. For a wonder, there are no burns - the foam was also a fire retardant and emergency crews got to her in time. Of course, she still has a probable concussion, all manner of internal injuries, and she's been comatose ever since the crash.

Exactly how complete her recovery will be was something that nobody knew the last time Jake asked.

He explains this to Becket during the long flight from Beijing to the care facility where they transferred Mako down in Adelaide. As well as why it was put out that she'd died in the crash.

"'S easier not to be a target when they think you're done for."

Of course Becket knew Mako wasn't dead. The man might only have Drifted with Mako a handful of times, but nobody looking at them look at each other would doubt their connection to each other - and not just the Drift, but _love_. Frankly, Jake's surprised it took the man so long to surface.

"And she hasn't woken up?"

"Not yet."

He nearly asks where Becket was during the _kaiju_ uprising; how the man could closet himself away right when the world needed him there? He swallows the words as the older man looks up. The gaze on him is hard and clear and blue - _human_ blue, not _kaiju_ blue.

"You haven't asked me where I've been."

Jake hesitates. "You're the only human to spend time in the _kaiju_ realm. The only one to see the other side and come back sane."

"That was because of Mako."

"I know." The vengeful rictus of Geiszler's face screaming at him is etched in his memory. He won't forget that in a hurry. "But even she can't fight the _kaiju_ in your head, I guess."

Becket's gaze sharpens, and Jake figures he's gonna have to bring up the topic sometime. "We're gonna need you when we take the war to them."

The older man grimaces, closes his eyes and leans back in the seat. "Maybe."

\--

Once the door opens on the medical suite, Jake kind of gives up trying to talk to Becket.

Mako's still asleep, but he's pretty sure that if she was awake, her whole being would be as focused on Becket as his is on her. As it is, Jake would swear that even in a coma she turns ever so slightly towards her husband as his hand hovers over the purple-green bruises still staining her skin.

 _Drift compatible._ Such an intense and complicated thing that forged the Jaeger program into a symbol of the world. Such a ridiculous, bizarre, powerful thing that saved them. _We are stronger together._

Mako and Becket. Dad and Chuck Hansen - and before that with Aunt Tam. Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka and all the Jaegers and pilots who came and were lost before them.

They spent lives and money to save the world - and yeah, Jake and Nate and Amara and the cadets and Shao and Gottlieb all held it together, but a guy who's lived the last dozen years on the dicey edge of risk knows that they won because they got lucky so many times.

Watching Becket settle in for the long wait, Jake wonders if something wasn't lost when they instigated the new AI technology, not only able to utilise drone Jaegers, but capable of bridging the gap between less compatible people to form a bond that could work Jaegers adequately - but not brilliantly. He wonders if that was part of the Geiszler-Precursor plan; to make the Jaegers less effective at the same time as they were modified for _kaiju_ wetware.

If they're going into the Precursor universe, they're going to need systems that the _kaiju_ can't hijack, bonds that the _kaiju_ can't break or imitate.

They're going to have to tap into the best of their humanity and make it _better_.

\--

Jake's not there when Mako wakes up. Well, he doesn't need to be, does he?

He's in a communications call with Shao and Gottlieb and Nate about the next phase of the Jaeger program and the capabilities and risks in using Shao Corporation's AI technology when it was corrupted so thoroughly by Doc Geiszler.

"Uh, Commander Pentecost."

"Ranger," Jake corrects him as Nate bites back a snort. "Just 'Ranger'."

"Right. Uh. Ms. Mori is awake and asking for you, Ranger Pentecost."

He nearly walks out on the call, but only just remembers to turn and simply say, "We gotta discuss this later."

"Convey to Mako our love," says Gottlieb, somewhat expansively, before intercepting the disbelieving looks from the other two. "What?"

Jake shakes his head and goes.

\--

"I understand that the PPDC became a great mess while I was down," Mako says when he brings up the intel she managed to pass to him before the crash.

"We-ell..."

"But you have come out of it a great hero and a leader." The smile is sweetly impish, with a tenderness that he hasn't seen in her for several years - since Becket 'vanished', in fact.

"Okay, now that's going too far," Jake tells her.

Her gaze rests on him for a few long moments, and he watches her back, tilting his head a little in mocking query. "Command suits you, Jake."

"Look, clearly you're still feverish and hazy, because, hah, _no._ " Jake shakes his head. "Don't paint Dad's uniform on me, thanks, I'm quite okay without it."

Mako smiles - the 'big sister' smile of satisfaction and grace and relief. "Yes, you arrrrrreeee..." The last word turns into a yawn and she tries to cover her mouth, but the drip feeding into her hand stops her. "Ow."

Jake gently pushes her hand back down to the bed. "You should rest as much as possible while you still can."

"Sounds ominous," she murmurs sleepily.

"I wish it wasn't," he says after he's pretty sure she's asleep. "I really wish it wasn't."

\--

The long-term goal is to take on the _kaiju_ homeworld, the 'Anteverse' as it's known to the _kaiju_ specialists, and to make sure those bastards never come back.

In the short term, it means working out how the corrupted Jaeger technology created the portal that nearly brought through a _kaiju_. It means harnessing the power of _kaiju_ blue as an energy source - and making sure that it's not misused along the way by some power-hungry asshole who can't see beyond his fief. It means selling the need for better communications between the various groups of the PPDC and particularly within the Jaeger program.

It means dealing with a lot of conflicts and opinions and people who are mostly looking out for themselves, which is something that Jake knows intimately - after all, that was him for a good ten years, wasn't it?

"Fucking bloody-- I am not cut out for this," Jake grumbles as he throws himself down in the chair next to Mako's bed.

"And yet the evidence says otherwise," Mako murmurs. "It is your experience with all these different people in the world that makes you good at dealing with things."

"Okay, now, you gotta stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Making me into Dad. I'm not."

"No, you are not." Mako folds her hands on the blankets. They haven't quite had to tie her to the bed, but it's come pretty close. And even Becket couldn't stop Mako from getting involved in the discussions about where they're going next, although he threatened divorce if she did _anything_ that hindered her recovery. " _Sensei_ did not connect with people as you do. He commanded respect and awe, and people would follow him into the jaws of the Breach, but he could not bring people together as you are doing."

Jake eyes her for a moment, not fully convinced she's not kidding him. Although Mako doesn't kid - not like that, anyway.

"Not the leader he wants to be," says Becket as he brings over the tea and the cups, "but the leader he needs to be?"

Jake glares at him. "You shut it, okay?"

\--

In spite of Becket's teasing, though, the other man is very quiet and serious about his time in the Anteverse.

"I don't like to remember it," he says. "One of the reasons I left was because of the nightmares. I was giving them to Mako, too, and we were both struggling."

Jake looks him in the eye. "So _did_ distance help?" He already knows the answer - and Becket knows he knows, and knows _why_ Jake knows. "Sometimes you can only run so far."

"The world's a circle. Sooner or later you've got to come back." Becket's mouth quirks a little, and Jake wonders what the man is remembering. But that's none of his business.

"So you're not going to leave Mako again?"

Becket snorts. "Someone needs to keep an eye on her. And you."

Jake claps him on the shoulder. "Good to have you back, then."

\--

In contrast, Gottlieb is more open about what he recalls from his brief Drift with Doc Geiszler and the baby _kaiju._

"I wrote down as much as I could remember in my journals," he says in the videoconference. "They're stored - oh, probably somewhere in Hong Kong, to be honest. There wasn't much to say, I'm afraid. Impressions, mostly. A lot of fearful babbling and scrawls. The taste of fear - actinic, and rather citrus. There was a great deal of orange lighting. More than that, I can't recall. The truth is that Newt took the brunt of the Drift, I merely anchored him."

"You realise that probably saved you from Doc Geiszler's fate, right?"

"The thought had crossed my mind, yes, thank you very much, Mr. Pentecost!" Gottlieb rolls his eyes. "Unfortunately, I fear that Newt would always have been susceptible, however. Apart from always enjoying being on the cutting edge, he was proud of being out there, of being _different_ and _clever_. It's no small leap for him to think that he could Drift with the _kaiju_ brain fragment again and suffer no ill effects, even after the _kaiju_ found him in Hong Kong. In literature, we would say that this was his fatal flaw."

"If we're living in a Greek tragedy." Jake shakes his head. "Let's not. Well, work out how to get hold of those journals, Doc. We're going to need them to take the fight back to the Precursors so we don't find ourselves facing them in another ten years..."

\--

Jake has never exactly warmed to Liwen Shao. Granted, he hasn't exactly had time to do so; his first encounter with her was when the Shao Corporation was trying to nudge the Jaeger program out the door, but she seemed rigid and a little bit soulless.

She seems rather more relaxed now. And at least a little more open to the Jaeger program after her drones were corrupted by Doc Geiszler and the _kaiju_.

"Marshall Mori, I still think that we can redevelop the drone technology for use--"

"Perhaps," Mako says. "But my recommendation to the PPDC in the wake of Dr. Geiszler's actions are that the primary requirement of the Jaegers is that they cannot be co-opted by _kaiju_ without significant adjustment. It is true that the drone technology can be redeveloped, but the investment for development must be from scratch. We do not know how far the _kaiju's_ influence has extended over your corporation through Dr. Geiszler."

"We are undertaking a thorough review. However, I draw your attention to the bypass I developed for Ms. Namani's individual Jaeger, which assisted Ranger Pentecost and Ranger Namani in their battle against the mega _kaiju_."

"An excellent piece of engineering." Mako doesn't hesitate with her praise. But she doesn't hesitate to bring reality back into the picture either. "It still does not provide assurance that Shao Corporation's technology is clear of _kaiju_ influence given Dr. Geiszler's involvement over the last ten years. This is not a matter of share price, Ms. Shao; it is a matter of the survival of humanity."

\--

Jake figures he better show his face in the halls of the PPDC before Mako turns up again, or the whole thing about explanations is going to be awful.

As it is, dealing with the replacement for Marshal Quan - the elderly Marshal Yun Wai-Tse who ran Hong Kong just before Jake's dad took it over in the last days before the Battle of the Breach - is one of the most uncomfortable experiences of Jake's life, and that includes the conversation with his dad after Jake washed out of the PPDC.

Yun fixes him with a glare worthy of any Asian grandmother, and, sure, Jake's never had an Asian grandmother, but he knows the type only too well. "You bring me this _now_?"

"You're the Moyulan Shatterdome Marshal, ma'am. It's my responsibility to bring it to you."

"Impudent whelp," is her pronouncement, even as she starts selecting names off a list of personnel, her fingers tapping with surprising nimbleness across the screen of her tablet. "Very well. You are to assemble these people on the landing pad for when they arrive. Full dress uniform, and full honours. Nothing less is suitable for the heroes of the Battle of the Breach."

\--

He's no sooner out of his quarters when Nate accosts him demanding explanations.

"It was need to know," Jake says as they head to the elevators that will take them up to the helipad. If they don't hop it then he's not going to be there to see his sister arrive. "Mako's life was at stake."

"Fine," Nate says reluctantly. "But, how the hell did you manage to keep that from me while we were Drifting?"

Jake shrugs. "They're coming back and we're going to see some serious changes around here. No more playing second fiddle to the Shao Corporation; Mako and the PPDC isn't going to stand for it. This time, they're working for us."

"Yeah? And Shao's agreed to that?"

"Well, yes, because..." Jake turns the corner to reach the elevator and finds a crowd in the hallway surrounding a man clad in a prosthetic walking suit, the proud angles of his face sharp beneath the corridor light as he turns to see who has come. "Well, because of _him_."

"Young Pentecost," says Wei Hu as Jake and Nate push through the crowds to reach him. "All grown up. Welcome back."

"Yeah, wasn't my choice. But I'm here." Here for Mako, here for Amara, here for the world - even here for Nate, although he'd never admit it.

"Maturity."

"Sure. _And_ I even managed to shed the chip on my shoulder."

The inscrutable face smiles briefly. "As I said: all grown up."

\--

Mako and Becket's arrival at the Moyulan Shatterdome is possibly the best PR the PPDC could ever have devised.

Every eye is on them as Mako walks steadily, if stiffly, from the helicopter to the group waiting to greet her, her hand tucked into Becket's arm.

"Mori."

"Yun." She salutes Yun and shakes the Marshall's hand, then smiles at Wei Hu. "You came back."

"Seems to be becoming a habit around here," says the last of the Wei triplets - the only one to survive Otachii. He says something in Mandarin to her that makes her laugh, and glance back at Becket.

Whatever Becket says back to his fellow former Jaeger pilot makes Wei Hu flash a brief, toothy smile.

Mako moves to stand in front of Jake.

He doesn't expect anything more than a salute - after all, this is Mako and this is him, and she has her dignity and her professionalism, and they're in public and--

" _Gakk_!" For a moment he's too stunned to respond. This is all Becket's fault. It's got to be. Mako isn't usually affectionate like this. "Mako! Careful - you're still healing!" But in spite of his words, Jake relaxes into the hug. These connections are important - heroes, old and new; shared purpose, new and future; and family, found and kept.

And all around them, people are smiling and wiping tears away from their eyes.

When she lets him go, he holds her carefully at arm's length. "You're sure about this? Nobody would blame you if you decided not to, you know--"

" _I_ would blame me," Mako reminds him. She looks along the receiving line, at the various personnel from the Shatterdome and the PPDC who've assembled for her arrival, and lifts her voice. "And we are stronger as many - all of us together."

"We'll need to be," Becket says, his voice joining hers. "Because we don't want the _kaiju_ coming back."

"Damn straight." Jake mutters and indicates towards the door off the roof - also along the receiving line. "So let's go work out how we're going to kick that _kaiju_ butt, shall we?"

Mako grins, and with her hand firmly tucked back into Becket's arm, she makes her way down the line and into the Shatterdome.


End file.
